Alone in his dorm, Charles slowly packed his stuff. What made packing difficult was his books. He had bought a lot of books—he admitted to himself, too many books. Reading e-books was never his preference because they made him dizzy, and he didn't feel safe staring at a monitor for too long. His books were piling up—from glossaries to novels, manga to encyclopedias. But he had definitely read them all. Sometimes he would read an entire book just for the sake of conquering it rather than fully understanding the content.
A knock came from the open doorway, and Charles found Mourice smirking there.
"May I come in?" Mourice asked like a gentleman.
"Yeah? After you've been looking away from me every time we pass each other in the corridors? I think you should be with your girlfriend, Mourice." Charles returned his gaze to the books.
Mourice laughed and, despite the obvious rejection, decided to enter the dorm anyway. The first thing Mourice did was casually lay on Charles's bed.
"Why so cold? Sooner or later, we'll be living together. Did you sign the buddy system suggestion from the academy?"
Charles was surprised to hear that. The letter was still in his hand. That meant he was the one being offered the match—after he signed it, Mourice would need to sign too. There was no way Mourice would know about it unless the instructor told him or…
"How do you know about that?"
"Oh, I wonder…" Mourice smirked. He found the tennis ball that Charles often used for anger management and began tossing it against the wall, catching it again with ease.
"Never mind. The instructor told you," Charles said, continuing to pack.
"Well, maybe. Or maybe I always knew because I'm the mastermind behind all of this," Mourice said proudly, as if he had pulled off some brilliant accomplishment.
"Yeah right. You're a bad joker." Charles let out a bitter laugh.
When he was about to leave his spot to pack his belongings in the bathroom, Mourice grabbed him by the wrist.
"Where are you going? Trying to escape me?"
"I'm packing my shampoo and toothbrushes," Charles said, waving his hand to remove Mourice's grip on his wrist.
While Charles entered the bathroom to gather his belongings, Mourice walked over to the door and closed it.
"How did you even mastermind this match? Did you hack the system?" Charles asked, his voice echoing slightly in the small bathroom.
"Not really. You know that the AI in the CCTV calculates our every moves and behaviors. The reason they match certain people is that they look for opposite behaviors that could complement each other. Your behavior—rarely moving, always reading books, passive, and not very sociable, physically weak—means they'll match you with someone who has better grades than you but shows behavior that's opposite of yours." Mourice folded his arms, smiling proudly at his own intelligence.
"That's all? Physical activities? Then why only you? There are tons of boys like you in the academy," Charles scoffed.
"You're forgetting something—the buddy system isn't one-sided. I was also asked whether I'd like to participate or not. All I needed to do was offer myself," Mourice tilted his head upward proudly. "Only straight-A students like me are free to choose whether to participate in the buddy system or not. And once we participate, we're offered two types of buddy systems: the golden pair or the mentoring pair.
Think about it—if you were a straight-A student, would you apply for the mentoring pair? No, right? That's why I had a better chance of being matched with you."
"Alright, I get it. No one wants to be a saint and risk their grades just to save someone else. But still, I didn't sign up for this. How could they still match me with you? Why not with another student?"
"Because…" Mourice moved slowly, pressing Charles against the bathroom wall and leaning in close to his face in a seductive way, "…I chose you."
Charles couldn't hide his feelings anymore. Being this close to Mourice took his breath away. His cold attitude melted quickly into shyness. He wasn't sure if it was because of Mourice's bold move to invade his personal space or because, deep inside, he felt flattered that Mourice would go through all this trouble just so they could be roommates—even in the buddy system.
"No, I was joking." Mourice took Charles by the chin, lifting it to force him to meet his gaze. "If you've noticed, your grades spike in certain areas but drop in others. The system sees potential in that, so it will prioritize cadets like you because you have real potential to improve. That's why you were chosen by the system to get promoted.
I mean, Charles, did you notice that most of us either have a GPA of C or D? A B is considered great. If this were a gacha game, your rank would be considered an uncommon free character—worth investing in until we get all the elite players."
"But this is too good to be true!" Then Charles realized he was exposing his true feelings and quickly corrected himself. "I mean… this is too coincidental!"
But Mourice's smirk wasn't accepting the correction. He knew Charles would love it. Charles might act like he hated the idea of the buddy system, but deep down, he would keep wondering if this was all a dream.
"It's not a coincidence. All I had to do was make the AI detect that I was your best match—by doing the things you're bad at." Mourice shrugged. Then he tapped his temple. "Us humans will always outsmart AIs."
Charles shook his head. "I can't believe you're this dumb—to go all the way just to be paired with someone who will drag your grades down."
"What's a grade worth when you're the son of a chief commander in the intergalactic law enforcement fleet?" Mourice flexed.
"Yeah right. If your father knew you went through all this just to be paired with a boy, he'd disown you."
"That's why…" Mourice pulled Charles into his chest. "Don't let him know about this."
Mourice kissed Charles's lips.
It was genuine. Even someone like Charles could tell.
But Charles pushed him away. "I'm flattered—but I'm not going to give my heart or body to someone who intends to keep me in the shadows. Tell the world you claimed me, or I'll tear down that goddamn paper!"
"Come on! You know I can't do that!" Mourice protested. "You know I've got nothing to give to Danielle. I'm just using her to make sure my dad doesn't get angry."
"Did you hear yourself?!" Charles exploded. He had thought about this all the time—how cowardly Mourice was to give himself up just to satisfy his father. "You're talking like a kid—a scared little boy who thinks he's so smart but trembles like a wet puppy the moment his father's name is mentioned!"
"Twinkie, it's not like that. You don't know how it feels to be his son!"
Charles kept mocking. "Oh yes, sure. My father was just a truck driver—too weak to protect himself from slander, and it cost him his life in prison. What do I know about a powerful military-style dad who would spank his son's ass if he dared to defy him?!"
Mourice grabbed Charles's cheeks and pinched them with his fingers, pulling Charles's face upward until he stopped talking. Then Mourice whispered into his ear, "Listen, boy… I've got this. You're perfect for me, and I want you. I'm just 15 right now, but I won't be a kid forever. Just like you're planning to lick your way to the top so you can rewrite the law, I'm doing the same thing with my dad. Brain over brawn, remember?"
Charles nodded.
"You get me, don't you?"
Charles nodded again.
"Good. All you've got to do is trust me. Once I get everything I want from him, I'll dump Danielle and nothing will stop us. But for now, you've got to hold my hand and stay hooked on me. Got it?" Mourice grinned, feeling deep satisfaction as he dominated Charles like this. And the fact that Charles was being so obedient when Mourice asserted physical dominance—it made him even more excited.
"Good boy." Mourice licked Charles's lips slowly. He could feel Charles's breath hitching in his throat. He loved it. He just wouldn't admit it.
The door suddenly open, disturbing the moment, showing Jacques Durant at the door way. Eyes wide open, chest is slowly burning.
From the look in Jacques's eyes, Mourice knows he got a bull to tame right now.